The hidden safety net: wild and semi-wild plant consumption and dietary diversity among women farmers in Southwestern Burkina Faso

ABSTRACT

Mainstream development thinking suggests that increasing agricultural production will increase wealth and lead to improved diets. However, in Burkina Faso, even better off rural areas are still experiencing widespread nutrition insecurity. Wild plants play a key role in rural diets and serve as a nutritional safety net. This research investigates the use of wild plants for dietary diversity among women rice farmers and their households in southwestern Burkina Faso. We use data collected through semi-structured interviews with 131 women over the 2016–2020 period. We find that wild foods are important for dietary diversity, especially for poor households.

KEYWORDS:

• Nutrition
• dietary diversity
• foraging
• food environment
• feminist political ecology

Acknowledgements

We express our appreciation to the Womadix Fund and the National Science Foundation for supporting this research. We are also grateful to Laura Smith, Eric Carter and three anonymous reviewers who provided valuable advice and feedback on earlier drafts of this paper. We also thank all of the research assistants who helped collect the data for this project, both Macalester students (Millie Varley, Julia Morgan, and Eliza Pessereau) and Burkinabe research assistants (Eveline Héma, Yacouba Zi, Salimata Traore and Bureima Kalaga). Last but not least, we express our appreciation to our official collaborator, the Burkina Faso National Institute for the Environment and Agricultural Research (INERA), and especially agroeconomist Adema Ouedrago, for helping us identify research sites and coordinate household surveys.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Wild and semi-wild foods are hereinafter referred to as ‘wild foods.’

2. Agroforestry refers to the integration of trees and shrubs into agricultural systems among crops and/or animals. These systems create biodiversity and have environmental and economic benefits (FAO, 2015).

3. This is based on personal observation by the second author and was confirmed with the local agricultural authority.

4. According to Popkin (1993): The first is collecting food in a hunter-gatherer population. Second is famine, which happens when diets decrease in variability. In pattern three, famine declines, fruits and vegetables enter the diet, urbanization begins, and agricultural inputs increase. Pattern four is a nutritional decline and an increase in degenerative disease as people consume more animal fats and refined carbohydrates. Lastly, in pattern five, behavioral changes occur to improve health as a response to pattern four. Life expectancy reaches 70–80 years, and preventative health is introduced.

5. Seasonality is an important factor in wild food consumption. While it is outside the scope of this article, it is addressed in another paper based on the study data, which found wild foods especially important for poor households during the rainy season (Servin, 2021).

6. In an ideal world, we might have undertaken a Poisson regression analysis to better isolate the influence of wealth and foraging on dietary diversity. That said, Pearson correlation analysis yields important insights on these dynamics.

7. * = P≤ 0.1; ** = P≤ 0.05; *** = P≤ 0.01

8. Min and Max refer to the high and low observed values in each wealth group.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Division of Social and Economic Sciences [1539833].

Notes on contributors

Jane Servin

Jane Servin received her bachelor’s degree in geography from Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota USA in May 2021. She also completed a minor in French as well as a concentration in Community and Global Health. She has interests and research experience in nutrition, development, and political ecology.

William G. Moseley

William G. Moseley is DeWitt Wallace Professor of Geography, and Director of the Program for Food, Agriculture and Society, at Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minnesota USA. His research focuses on political ecology, tropical agriculture, food security and development geography. He primarily works in West and Southern Africa.